Astroblog

Obscured by Clouds. The rough and ready blog of a cloud benighted biologist and amateur astronomer. Astroblog will cover my interests in astronomy, biology and Life, the Universe and Everything.

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

The Sky This Week - Thursday May 29 to Thursday June 5

The New Moon is Thursday May 29. Jupiter is low
in the early evening sky. Mercury is low in the evening sky below Jupiter. The crescent Moon is close to Mercury on May 30, and Jupiter on June 1. Mars and Saturn are prominent in
the
evening sky. Venus is
prominent
in the morning sky.

The New Moon is Thursday May 29. The Moon is at apogee on June 3.

Evening
sky on Saturday May 31 looking north-west as seen from Adelaide at 18:00
pm ACST in South Australia. Jupiter is above the north-western
horizon, Mercury is just above the horizon. The crescent Moon lies between them Similar views will be seen elsewhere
at the equivalent local time (click to embiggen).

At 6:00 pm if you have a level horizon free of obstructions, you can see
four bright planets strung out across the sky, Mercury just above the
horizon, Jupiter above that, Mars high in the northern sky and Saturn
rising in the west.

Mercury
is low in the evening sky in the western twilight. Mercury is visited by the crescent Moon on the 30th.

Jupiter
is low to the horizon when twilight ends. Jupiter sets around 20:30,
telescopic observation
is not really worthwhile now.

In the early evening Jupiter is above the north-western horizon between the
bright
stars Castor and Pollux, the twins of Gemini, and the bright red star
Betelgeuse. Jupiter is quite easy to
see as the brightest object above the western horizon in the early evening. In the early evening the
sight of bright Jupiter sinking to the west, and bright Mars (still not
as bright as Jupiter though) to the north and Saturn rising in the east is quite beautiful.

Jupiter's Moons are readily visible in binoculars. Jupiter is close to the crescent Moon on June 1.

Mars is easily seen in the northern evening sky.
It is highest in the sky around 20:30. Mars was at opposition, when it is biggest and brightest, on the 9th of April, and
is still
readily distinguishable as the bright red/orange object above the
northern evening horizon. Mars is in the constellation of Virgo near the
brightish star Porrima, not far from the bright star Spica. Mars is well worthwhile looking at in a
telescope now, although you will need a decent one to see any detail.

Saturn is rising higher in the evening sky, and was at opposition on the 11th. Saturn
is visible all night long. Saturn is high enough
from around 10 pm for decent telescopic observation (see below).
Saturn is in Libra near the head
of the constellation of the Scorpion and forms a triangle with the
two brightest stars of Libra, its apex pointing towards the head of the
Scorpion.

Morning sky on Saturday May 31 looking east as seen from Adelaide
at 5:00 am ACST. Similar views will be seen throughout Australia at equivalent
local times. (click
to embiggen).

Venus is in the morning sky, above the eastern horizon. The brightest object
in the morning sky, it is now easy
to see and although it is past maximum
brightness, it will dominate the morning sky for some time to come.

Venus was at its furthest distance from
the Sun on the 23rd of March, and now will begin to slowly sink towards
the horizon. Venus is a clear gibbous Moon shape in a telescope and is visited by the crescent Moon on the 26th.

Evening
sky on Saturday May 31 looking east as seen from Adelaide at 18:00
pm
ACST in South Australia. The inset shows the telescopic views of Saturn and Mars at this time.

The asteroids Vesta and Ceres are just below Mars, however, now only Vesta remains visible in
binoculars. Similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent
local time (click to embiggen).

The bright asteroid 4 Vesta is visible in binoculars in the evening sky. While Vesta is easily seen in
binoculars, you will
need to watch the same patch of sky in binoculars for a couple of nights
to identify it by its movement. Ceres is is now too dim to see with binoculars. See here for a printable black and white map suitable for seeing seeing Vesta and Ceres.

There are lots
of interesting things in the sky to view with a telescope. Especially
with Mars and Venus and Saturn so prominent in the sky. If you don't have a telescope, now
is a good time to visit one of your local astronomical societies open nights or the local planetariums.

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

The Sky This Week - Thursday May 22 to Thursday May 29

The New Moon is Thursday May 29. Jupiter is low
in the early evening sky. Mercury is low in the evening sky below Jupiter. Mars and Saturn are prominent in
the
evening sky. Venus is
prominent
in the morning sky and is visited by the Moon on the 26th. The asteroid Vesta is visible in binoculars.

The New Moon is Thursday May 29.

Evening
sky on Sunday May 25 looking north-west as seen from Adelaide at 18:00
pm ACST in South Australia. Jupiter is above the north-western
horizon, Mercury is just above the horizon. Similar views will be seen elsewhere
at the equivalent local time (click to embiggen).

At 6:00 pm if you have a level horizon free of obstructions, you can see four bright planets strung out across the sky, Mercury just above the horizon, Jupiter above that, Mars high in the northern sky and Saturn rising in the west.

Mercury is low in the evening sky in the western twilight. Mercury is at its greatest distance from the Sun on the 25th, but you will still need a clear level horizon to see it properly.

Jupiter
is low to the horizon when twilight ends. Jupiter sets around 20:30,
telescopic observation
is not really worthwhile now.

In the early evening Jupiter is above the north-western horizon between the
bright
stars Castor and Pollux, the twins of Gemini, and the bright red star
Betelgeuse. Jupiter is quite easy to
see as the brightest object above the western horizon in the early evening. In the early evening the
sight of bright Jupiter sinking to the west, and bright Mars (still not
as bright as Jupiter though) to the north and Saturn rising in the east is quite beautiful.

Jupiter's Moons are readily visible in binoculars.

Jupiter is very close to the moderately bright star Wasat on the 23rd.

Mars is easily seen in the northern evening sky.
It is highest in the sky around 20:40. Mars was at opposition, when it is biggest and brightest, on the 9th of April, and
is still
readily distinguishable as the bright red/orange object above the
northern evening horizon. Mars is in the constellation of Virgo near the
brightish star Porrima, not far from the bright star Spica. Mars is well worthwhile looking at in a
telescope now, although you will need a decent one to see any detail.

Saturn is rising higher in the evening sky, and was at opposition on the 11th. Saturn
is visible all night long. Saturn is high enough
from around 10 pm for decent telescopic observation (see below).
Saturn is in Libra near the head
of the constellation of the Scorpion and forms a triangle with the
two brightest stars of Libra, its apex pointing towards the head of the
Scorpion.

Morning sky on Monday May 26 looking east as seen from Adelaide
at 5:30 am ACST showing the crescent Moon close to Venus. Similar views will be seen throughout Australia at equivalent
local times. (click
to embiggen).

Venus is in the morning sky, above the eastern horizon. The brightest object
in the morning sky, it is now easy
to see and although it is past maximum
brightness, it will dominate the morning sky for some time to come.

Venus was at its furthest distance from
the Sun on the 23rd of March, and now will begin to slowly sink towards
the horizon. Venus is a clear gibbous Moon shape in a telescope and is visited by the crescent Moon on the 26th.

Evening
sky on Saturday May 24 looking north as seen from Adelaide at 22:00
pm
ACST in South Australia. The inset shows the telescopic views of Saturn and Mars at this time.

The asteroids Vesta and Ceres are just below Mars, however, now only Vesta remains visible in
binoculars. Similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent
local time (click to embiggen).

The bright asteroid 4 Vesta is visible in binoculars in the evening sky. While Vesta is easily seen in
binoculars, you will
need to watch the same patch of sky in binoculars for a couple of nights
to identify it by its movement. Ceres is is now too dim to see with binoculars. See here for a printable black and white map suitable for seeing seeing Vesta and Ceres.

There are lots
of interesting things in the sky to view with a telescope. Especially
with Mars and Venus and Saturn so prominent in the sky. If you don't have a telescope, now
is a good time to visit one of your local astronomical societies open nights or the local planetariums.

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Close-up View of the Occultation of Saturn (May 14, 2014)

Images of the occultation of Saturn (Wednesday 14 May, 2014) taking using my 8" Newtonian telescope, Don. Images acquired as video (60 seconds) with a Phillips ToUCam and Vega image acquisition, then processed with Registax 3 (click to embiggen).
I almost missed ingress, because the webcam chip rotated the orientation of the image as seen through the eyepiece, and I was desperately searching for Saturn on the wrong side of the Moon!

I did catch it in time to get a nice sequence of the ingress, some of which are shown above and I made an animation (seen to the left).

I haven't processed all the images as it takes forever on the elderly laptop. Later on I will boot it up again and copy all the files over and do a smoother animation.

Completely missed egress as once again I forgot that the webcam reversed the Lunar orientation. By the time I had worked out which side Saturn should come out, I had missed it.

Despite prefect clear skies the atmospheric turbulence was something awful, so Saturn is not as crisp as I would like. The widefield images with the 4" scope are crisper.

Still, AWESOME occultation, next time I hope I can convince the kids to come out and watch (next time I'll be ready with egress maps so I know which side everything is on).

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Widefield View of the Occultation of Saturn (May 14, 2014)

Images of the occultation of Saturn (Wednesday 14 May, 2014) taking using my 4" Newtonian telescope, with a "Point and Shoot" Canon IXUS attached with inifinty to infinity focussing, 3xZoom, and a 25mm eye piece. Click to embiggen.

The evening rolled around clear and bright. In between organising dinner for the boys, I dragged out the scopes to cool and tries to set them up efficiently. I was using the 4" Newtonian to run wide field shots with the point and click, and Don the 8" Newtonian for the close-up webcam.

The main issue is that it had been so long since I had done anything with the 8" scope (bad weather and lack of opportunity), finding all the bits and pieces while cooking took time. Especially since the laptop I use to run the webacm has no screen, and I have to use a separate screen which had been borrowed by MiddleOne, then finding the only memory stick that would work on the laptop (it is so old it can't handle anything over 2Gb).

But get set up I did, and feed the kids, and organised the dish-washing and all, then headed out for the occultation. I spent most of my time trying to get Saturn in the field of view of Don the 8" but I got these shots in the run up to the high resolution run on Don (actually, I got a lot more, but these are the best).

Occultation of Saturn, awesome... Now to finish of the high resolution images. (You can see them here now)

First shot of the occultation of Saturn

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

The Sky This Week - Thursday May 15 to Thursday May 22

The Last Quarter Moon is Wednesday May 21. Jupiter is low
in the early evening sky. Mars and Saturn are prominent in
the
evening sky. Mercury returns to the evening sky. Venus is
prominent
in the morning sky. The asteroids Vesta and
Ceres are visible in binoculars.

The Last Quarter Moon is Wednesday May 21. The Moon is at perigee (closest to Earth) on the 18th.

Evening
sky on Sunday May 18 looking north-west as seen from Adelaide at 18:00 pm ACST in South Australia. Jupiter is above the north-western
horizon, Mercury is just clearing the horizon. The inset
shows Jupiter's Moons at this time. Similar views will be seen elsewhere
at the equivalent local time (click to embiggen).

Mercury returns to the evening sky low in the western twilight. By the end of the week is is reasonably high in the twilight.

Jupiter
is low to the horizon when twilight ends. Jupiter sets around 20:45,
so there is a very short time for good telescopic observation
now.

In the early evening it is above the north-western horizon between the
bright
stars Castor and Pollux, the twins of Gemini, and the bright red star
Betelgeuse. Jupiter is quite easy to
see as the brightest object in the entire sky in the early evening. In the early evening the
sight of bright Jupiter sinking to the west, and bright Mars (still not
as bright as Jupiter though) rising in the east is quite beautiful.
Jupiter's Moons are readily visible in binoculars.

Jupiter comes very close to the moderately bright star Wasat by the 22nd.

Mars is easily seen in the northern evening sky.
It is highest in the sky around 21:00. Mars was at opposition, when it is biggest and brightest, on the 9th of April, and
is still
readily distinguishable as the bright red/orange object above the
northern evening horizon. Mars is in the constellation of Virgo near the
brightish star Porrima, not far from the bright star Spica. Mars is well worthwhile looking at in a
telescope now, although you will need a decent one to see any detail.

Saturn is rising higher in the evening sky, and was at opposition on the 11th. Saturn
is now visible all night long. Saturn is high enough
from around 10 pm for decent telescopic observation (see below).
Saturn is in Libra near the head
of the constellation of the Scorpion. Saturn forms a triangle with the
two brightest stars of Libra, its apex pointing towards the head of the
Scorpion.

Morning sky on Saturday May 18 looking east as seen from Adelaide
at 5:00 am ACST. Similar views will be seen throughout Australia at equivalent
local times. (click
to embiggen).

Venus is in the morning sky, above the eastern horizon. The brightest object
in the morning sky, it is now easy
to see and although it is past maximum
brightness, it will dominate the morning sky for some time to come.

Venus was at its furthest distance from
the Sun on the 23rd of March, and now will begin to slowly sink towards
the horizon. Venus is a clear gibbous Moon shape.

Evening
sky on Saturday May 18 looking north as seen from Adelaide at 22:00
pm
ACST in South Australia. The inset show the telescopic views of Saturn and Mars at this time.

The asteroids Vesta and Ceres are just below Mars, and visible in
binoculars. Similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent
local time (click to embiggen).

Two bright asteroids are visible in binoculars in the evening sky. 1 Ceres and 4 Vesta.
Unfortunately the waning Moon means that these asteroids will be difficult to see this week. While Vesta is easily seen in
binoculars, you will
need to watch the same patch of sky in binoculars for a couple of nights
to identify it by its movement. Ceres is now fading from
magnitude 7, but is still in the range of 10x50 binoculars. See here for a printable black and white map suitable for seeing seeing Vesta and Ceres.

There are lots
of interesting things in the sky to view with a telescope. Especially
with Mars and Venus and Saturn so prominent in the sky. If you don't have a telescope, now
is a good time to visit one of your local astronomical societies open nights or the local planetariums.

Monday, May 12, 2014

Carnival of Space #352 is Here!

Carnival of Space #352 has been up for a while now, but I've just noticed (sorry, it's been one of those week, flu, grants to finish reviewing, conference presentations). There's LADEE's crash on the Moon, asteroids vs your hometown, cold Brown Dwarfs and Stargates. Jump on over and have a read.

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Don't Forget the Occultation of Saturn on 14 May, 2014

The Moon at 8:02 pm ACST in Adelaide on 14 May just before the Moon
covers Saturn. Similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent
local time. Click to embiggen.

Don't forget, the Moon occults Saturn on the early evening of Wednesday May 14. It will be easy to work out where to look, the Moon is very obvious signpost and Saturn will be the
brightest object near the Moon. Start watching about half an hour before
hand.

Tuesday, May 06, 2014

The Sky This Week - Thursday May 8 to Thursday May 15

The Full Moon is Thursday May 15. Jupiter is the brightest object
in the early evening sky. Mars is prominent in
the
evening sky and the Moon is close to Mars on the 11th. Saturn is at opposition on the 11th, when it is biggest and brightest as seen from Earth. The Moon occults Saturn on the 14th. Venus is
prominent
in the morning sky. The eta Aquariid meteor shower is visible on the mornings of the 8-9 May. The asteroids Vesta and
Ceres are visible in binoculars.

The Full Moon is Thursday May 15. The Moon occults Saturn on May 14 (see below).

Evening
sky on Sunday May 4 looking north-west as seen from Adelaide at
20:00 pm ACST in South Australia. Jupiter is above the north-western
horizon. The crescent Moon is close by. The inset
shows Jupiter's Moons at this time. Similar views will be seen elsewhere
at the equivalent local time (click to embiggen).

Jupiter is in the constellation Gemini and is the brightest object in
the early evening sky. Jupiter is becoming harder and harder to observe as it sets earlier.

Jupiter
is high
enough to begin
observing telescopically when twilight ends. Jupiter sets around 21:00,
so there is only a couple of hours for good telescopic observation
now.

In the early evening it is above the north-western horizon between the
bright
stars Castor and Pollux, the twins of Gemini, and the bright red star
Betelgeuse. Jupiter is quite easy to
see as the brightest object in the entire sky in the early evening. In the early evening the
sight of bright Jupiter sinking to the west, and bright Mars (still not
as bright as Jupiter though) rising in the east is quite beautiful.
Jupiter's Moons are readily visible in binoculars.

Mars is easily seen in the evening,
rising as Jupiter is setting.
It is highest in the sky around 21:30. Mars was at opposition, when it is biggest and brightest, on the 9th of April, and
is still
readily distinguishable as the bright red/orange object above the
north-eastern evening horizon. Mars is in the constellation of Virgo near the
brightish star Porrima, not far from the bright star Spica. Mars is well worthwhile looking at in a
telescope now, although you will need a decent one to see any detail.

The Moon is close to Mars on the 11th.

Saturn is rising higher in the evening sky, and is at opposition on the 11th. This is wehn Saturn is closest and brightest as seen from Earth. Saturn is now visible all night long. Saturn is high enough
from around 11 pm for decent telescopic observation (see below).
Saturn is in Libra near the head
of the constellation of the Scorpion. Saturn forms a triangle with the
two brightest stars of Libra, its apex pointing towards the head of the
Scorpion. On the evening of the 14th Saturn is occulted by the Moon (see below).

Morning sky on Thursday May 8 looking east as seen from Adelaide
at 5:00 am ACST. The radiant of the eta Aquariid meteor shower is
shown. Similar views will be seen throughout Australia at equivalent
local times. (click
to embiggen).

Venus is in the morning sky, above the eastern horizon. The brightest object
in the morning sky, it is now easy
to see and although it is past maximum
brightness, it will dominate the morning sky for some time to come.

Venus was at its furthest distance from
the Sun on the 23rd of March, and now will begin to slowly sink towards
the horizon. Venus is a clear gibbous Moon shape.

The eta Aquariids meteor shower, the debris from Halleys comet, peaked on May 6 UT . However, good rates will be seen from Australia on the 8th and 9th.

People in the suburbs should see a meteor around once every 6 minutes,
and in the country about once every 3 minutes. The
radiant of the shower is about five handspans up from the eastern
horizon, and three handspans to the left of due east at 4 am, just above
and to the left of rising Venus (see spotter chart at 5 am above).

When looking, be sure to let your eyes adjust for at least
5 minutes so your eyes can be properly adapted to the dark. Don't look
directly at the radiant site, because the meteors will often start
their "burn" some distance from it, but around a handspan up or to the
side. Be patient, although you should see an average of
a meteor every six to three minutes, a whole stretch of time can go by
without a meteor, then a whole bunch turn up one after the other.

Evening
sky on Wednesday May 14 looking east as seen from Adelaide at 20:00
pm
ACST in South Australia.
Saturn is just about to go behind the Moon.
The inset show the telescopic views of Saturn at this time.

On the evening of Wednesday 14 May Saturn is occulted by the Moon as seen from the most of Australia (and all of New Zealand).

The Moon is a very obvious signpost where look and Saturn will be the
brightest object near the Moon. Start watching about half an hour before
hand to get set up and familiar with the sky. The occultation is early enough so that kids can get involved. Why not have a star party in your back yard?

The occultation starts around 21:00 eastern time, 20:00 central time and 18:26 Western time. For exact time from many cities and observing hints, see my Saturn Occultation site.

The asteroids Vesta and Ceres are just below Mars, and easily visible in
binoculars. Similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent
local time (click to embiggen).

Two bright asteroids are now visible in binoculars in the evening sky. 1 Ceres and 4 Vesta.
Vesta is now bright enough to be just visible to the unaided eye in
dark sky locations.Unfortunately the waxing Moon means that it will not
be visible to the unaided eye this week. While Vesta is easily seen in
binoculars, you will
need to watch the same patch of sky in binoculars for a couple of nights
to identify it by its movement. Ceres never gets brighter than
magnitude 7, but is easily in the range of 10x50 binoculars. See here for a printable black and white map suitable for seeing seeing Vesta and Ceres.

There are lots
of interesting things in the sky to view with a telescope. Especially
with Jupiter, Mars and Venus so prominent in the sky, and Saturn coming into view. If you don't have a telescope, now
is a good time to visit one of your local astronomical societies open nights or the local planetariums.

Occultation of Saturn by the Moon 14 May, 2014

The Moon at 8:02 pm ACST in Adelaide on 14 May just before the Moon covers Saturn. Similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time. See table below for exact local times. Click to embiggen.

Telescopic view of the occultation. Saturns' giant moon Titan is just about to go behind the Moon. Simulated in Stellarium. Click to embiggen.

On the evening of Wednesday 14 May Saturn is occulted by the Moon as seen from the most of Australia (and all of New Zealand). This is the second of these rare occultations, and is under reasonable dark skies, rather than daylight like last time.

The Moon is a very obvious signpost where look and Saturn will be the brightest object near the Moon. Start watching about half an hour before hand to get set up and familiar with the sky.

Although this event is easily seen with the unaided eye, it is best seen in a small telescope so you can see the ringed world in detail as it vanishes behind the Moon. Saturn's moon Titan will be occulted before Saturn, so you can see the Moon occult a moon.

The occultation occurs in the early evening with the Moon will be reasonably high above the north east horizon, a good time to show the kids this event. The Moon easily visible and a ready signpost to Saturn. It is advisable to set up and practise on the Moon a day or so before the event, so you are familar with your telescope set-up.

Set up at least half an hour ahead of time so that you can be sure everything is working well and you can watch the entire event comfortably (trying to focus your telescope on Saturn moments before the occultation will cause a lot of unnecessary stress). Saturn will be clearly visible in a telescope or binoculars near the Moon.

Place

Disappears Dark Limb

Reappears Bright Limb

Adelaide ACST

20:09

21:17

Brisbane AEST

21:05

21:35

Canberra AEST

20:53

22:00

Darwin ACST

20:06 (graze)

-

Hobart AEST

20:59

22:11

Melbourne AEST

20:50

22:00

Perth AWST

18:26

19:24

Sydney AEST

20:56

21:59

More cities in Australia and New Zealand cities can be found at the IOTA site (UT times only).

Sunday, May 04, 2014

Comet C/2012 K1 PanSTARRS visits the Whirlpool Galaxy

Comet C/2012 K1 PanSTARRS near the M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy. Image taken with iTelescope T14 on 30-04-14. 10x60 second luminance images stacked with ImageJ and SUMMED. Click to embiggen

Image taken with iTelescope T14 on 01-05-14. 10x60 second luminance images and 60 seconds RBG in BIN 2. Stacked with ImageJ and then made into an RBG image using the compose function.Click to embiggen

Image taken with iTelescope T14 on 2-05-14. 6x60 second luminance images stacked with DeepSky Stacker (which is why the image is inverted from the other 3).

Image taken with iTelescope T14 on 3-05-14. 10x60 second luminance images stacked with ImageJ and SUMMED. Click to embiggen

Comet C/2012 K1 PanSTARRS is quite bright at the moment, by cometary standards. It is around magnitude 9 (just below binocular brightness but in the range of small telescopes). Currently it is only visible in the northern hemisphere, near the Big Dipper.

Close up crop of the images from the 30th, showing (faintly) the two tails of comet C/2012 K1. This is a median stack in image J.

Animated GIF, also of the 30th, showing all the passing satellites, as well as the comets movement.

Over the past few days the comet has passed M51, the iconic Whirlpool galaxy. This made for some nice compositions in the iTelescope widefield instrument T14. I even tried some colour compositions, but sadly I am not very good at colour.

Still, I got some nice shots with good detail in the galaxy and the comet large enough to make the field interesting (the differing backgrounds are due to different attempts to bring out detail in the cometary tail). In close up you can even see the two tails of the comet. I may try and make a large scale animation later.

This is not the end of the comets encounters, from 11-13 May the brightening comet is close to galaxy M106 and a host of smaller galaxies. Should be very nice to watch.

In the evening from 5:30 pm ACST (6:00 pm AEST) I'll be talking on 4BC radio (QLD) about pesticides in food. They will also be streaming, and you can listen on-line by clicking the listen live button on their homepage. The talk will be podcast, and you will find the podcast here when the show is over. http://www.4bc.com.au/HealthWellbeing

eta Aquariid Meteor Shower 7-9 May, 2014

Morning sky on Wednesday May 7 looking east as seen from Adelaide
at 5:00 am ACST. The radiant of the eta Aquariid meteor shower is shown. Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time. (click
to embiggen).

The eta Aquariids meteor shower, the debris from Halleys comet, peaks on May 6 at 07 UT
(that's 5 pm AEST and 4:30 pm ACST, disappointingly in daytime) with a
ZHR of 55. However, the shower radiant rises around 2 am, so you can't see the
shower until the morning of Tuesday the 7th.

The figure ZHR is zenithal hourly rate. This is the number of meteors
that a single observer would see per hour if the shower's "point of
origin", or radiant, were at the zenith and the sky were dark enough
for 6.5-magnitude
stars to be visible to the naked eye.

In practise, you will never see
this many meteors as the radiant will be some distance below the zenith.
Also, unless you are out deep in the countryside, the darkness will be
less than ideal. How
many are you likely to see in reality? I discuss this further down,
lets talk about when to see them first.

Although the actual peak is on 6th at 17:00 AEST, for Australia the best
time to see the eta-Aquarids is in the early morning of the 7th, 8th and 9th. This year the first quarter Moon sets long before the radiant rises, so you should have almost ideal observing conditions if the cloud stays away.

How many will be seen on the 7th is not clear, but very good rates were seen last year, and dark sky sites may possibly see one meteor every
two minutes or so. There were many bright ones reported with
persistent trains. People in the suburbs may be will see less, but at
least one every 6 minutes should be possible.

People in the suburbs should see a meteor around once every 6 minutes,
and in the country about once every 3 minutes on the 7th, a bit more
on the 8th and around the same rates as the 7th on the 9th. The
radiant of the shower is about five handspans up from the eastern
horizon, and three handspans to the left of due east at 4 am (see above for a spotter chart at 5 am).

When looking, be sure to let your eyes adjust for at least
5 minutes so your eyes can be properly adapted to the dark. Don't look
directly at the radiant site, because the meteors will often start
their "burn" some distance from it, but around a handspan up or to the
side. Be patient, although you should see an average of
a meteor every six to three minutes, a whole stretch of time can go by
without a meteor, then a whole bunch turn up one after the other.

Make
yourself comfortable, choose an observing site that has little to
obstruct the eastern horizon, have a comfortable chair to sit in (a
banana lounger is best), or blankets and pillows. Rug up against the cold. A hot Thermos of
something to drink and plenty of
mosquito protection will complete your observing preparations. As well
as meteors, keep an eye out for satellites (see Heavens Above for predictions from your site).

The sky will also be particularly beautiful, with the Milky Way
stretching over the sky and constellation of Scorpius gracing the
north-western sky. The radiant is not far above Venus, so you will have an attractive eastern horizon.

Use the NASA meteor shower flux estimator for
an estimate of what the shower will be like from your location (you may need to enter your longitude and latitude, surprisingly, while Adelaide and Brisbane are hard wired in, Sydney and Melbourne are not).

You
need to choose 31 Eta Aquariids and remember to set the date to 7-8 or
8-9 May 2014. You can follow the progress of the shower at the IMO live Aquariid site.